


Not Bossy, Just The Boss

by camichats



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Arguing, Clary Fray Bashing, Communication, Established Relationship, Forbidden Love, Jealousy, Light Angst, M/M, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:21:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23856769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: Jace finally explains why he's so interested in Clary. While it's enough to make Alec understand, they agree that Jace has too much of a bias to be making the final decisions regarding her.
Relationships: Alec Lightwood/Jace Wayland
Comments: 17
Kudos: 209





	Not Bossy, Just The Boss

**Author's Note:**

> The Clary bashing is mostly in keeping with how Alec felt about her in the beginning, but I felt it was enough to warrant the tag

"You need to stop getting jealous of Clary, someone's going to notice," Jace said as soon as the locking rune was in place.

"Stop giving me a reason to be jealous," Alec shot back. He was beyond annoyed with all of this bullshit. It wasn't bad enough that Clary came out of nowhere and immediately claimed Jace's full devotion, but she brought along her mundane friend who somehow managed to make every situation twice as bad. 

"You're overreacting." 

"Seriously? We all almost died because you're doing every little thing she wants and _I'm_ overreacting?" 

"We're Shadowhunters, this is our job. We almost die all the time." 

"Not like this, and not for some spruced up mundane." 

"She's not a mundane, she's one of us!" 

"Where is this faith for her coming from? We have _no reason_ to trust her. None at all. But you're acting like she's the next Jonathan Shadowhunter and it's your angel given edict to follow her every whim." 

"There's something different about her. She's special, Alec, she needs our help." 

"See?" Alec said, point a finger at him. "That right there. You say shit like that, but sure, I'm being jealous for no reason." 

"It's not like that and you know it." 

"We wouldn't be having this conversation if I knew it." 

Jace sighed, like this conversation was annoying for him. Like it was a minor inconvenience that Alec was stepping a toe out of line instead of following along like he always did. 

And you know, Alec had warned him that this would happen. When Jace had said they'd be able to hide the truth of their relationship, Alec had told him that it was for life and that he'd regret it. Jace had insisted that all he wanted for the rest of his life was _Alec_ , and Alec had been young enough that he didn't push it. He'd loved Jace back then, and he loved him now. It was pretty obvious that Jace was refusing to admit that he'd made a mistake. But Alec had expected this, so he grit his teeth and said, "Whatever. It doesn't matter. Just make sure that you tell Izzy what you're doing so you have backup." 

"What are you talking about? _You're_ my backup. Always have been, always will be; we're parabatai." 

"Yeah, well I can't deal with you right now. As long as you're running errands for Clary, I'll be here, running the Institute while our parents are gone." 

The expression on Jace's face made it clear that _now_ , he was paying attention. Wasn't that fucking sad? Alec had to tell him that he wasn't going to be there for him for Jace to believe he was actually upset. Must be part of that 'overreacting' thing. "Alec... I need you. I can't help Clary find her mother without your help." 

"Well when you want to tell me why you're so hung up on not questioning her, I'll listen. Until then, I'm sure you and Izzy will be fine." Alec walked back to the door and took out his stele, about to deactivate the rune when Jace grabbed his hand. Alec looked down at him to see an averted gaze and a clenched jaw. 

"If you promise to help her, I'll follow your lead for those decisions." 

"This isn't a fucking power play, I want you to talk to me." 

"I am talking to you, right now. Compromise, right?" 

Alec rolled his eyes hard and shoved off Jace's hand. "Yeah, that's not what I meant. I asked for you to tell me why you're so invested, and I said that because it's what I need for us to keep going. I didn't say it so you'd put me in charge. So are you going to tell me, or am I leaving?" 

"It's your room." 

Alec deactivated the rune and left, and this time, Jace didn't try to stop him. He didn't know what the _hell_ was going on with them lately, but he hated it. They'd been doing their usual: go on a mission and kill demons, file a report, and sneak around for some uninterrupted time. Rinse, repeat. Alec had liked it. He was pretty sure Jace had liked it. Izzy was enjoying the change of pace, but she never liked doing the same thing day in and day out. Even going to clubs to hunt demons hadn't been enough of a change for her, though he didn't doubt that she was happy on the whole. 

But Clary fucking Fray showed up, mundane friend closely trailing behind, and it's like the whole world had been turned upside down. Valentine was alive, the Mortal Cup-- while still totally lost-- was closer than it had ever been since the Uprising. Alec wanted to leave Jace alone until he got his head together, but with the way he'd been acting, he'd probably let Clary get him killed. Hence, leaving Izzy with him. He started making his way down to her lab to let her know, but he wasn't sure how well this conversation was going to go. Sometimes he could tell Jace what was going to happen and he would listen, but Izzy was a wild card. He could guess which way Jace was going to go pretty accurately, but he never with his sister. 

He saw her alone, typing up a report to go alongside the recording she made of her findings while doing the autopsy, and knocked on the glass. "Bad time?" 

"Great time, I could use the break," she grinned, spinning the chair around to face him. "What's up, big brother?" 

"I'm going to be sitting out any upcoming missions to help Clary." 

Izzy straightened, expression immediately turning serious. "What?" 

"I was wondering if you'd watch Jace's back for me. Make sure he doesn't get himself killed." 

"You could do that yourself." 

"I'm not going to. Not until he talks to me." 

She pushed herself up and walked to stand in front of him. "Is this because he likes her? I know it's- complicated, but I would think you'd support him now that he's finally interested in someone, the same way he'd support you if you ever found a romantic partner." 

Alec had a very ugly thought about him and Jace and their choice of romantic partners, and he tamped down on it before it could seep into his expression. "Yeah well when he wants to admit that's why he's doing this, I'll come back. Until then, he's going to have to live without me." 

"I think you're being unreasonable. Clary's in a lot of danger, and we need to be there to protect her." 

"You will be." 

" _All_ of us," she corrected, "need to be there. This isn't just a lost Shadowhunter finding her way in our world, this is about the possible extinction of our kind. I don't mean to trivialize your issues with Jace, and I'm sure you're right in that he should be telling you things instead of running off half-cocked, but for the sake of everyone, we need you in the field with us." 

"No you don't. I'm distracting him, I'm pissing off her mundane friend so he wanders off, and you end up having to do all the work because you can't depend on us. This is safest for everyone." 

"And?" Izzy asked expectantly, knowing that there was something he was leaving out. 

Alec blew out a breath. "And I need space from Jace right now," he admitted. The only thing he ever hid from her was that he and Jace were sleeping together. If she was implicated in that, she'd get de-runed, same as they would. "Maybe it's coming from a selfish place, but you're the one who tells me that I need to take care of myself." 

Her expression took a pained cast for a moment, acknowledging that she usually said that and meant it. "Now is different. I want for you to do the best thing for yourself Alec, I really do." 

"But you want me to back down and go tell Jace he was right." 

"No, you don't need to tell him he's right." 

"You still want me to back down." 

"Listen," she said, taking a step closer, "if this was just between the two of you, I would stay out of it. But this could effect all of us, and I don't want to see you destroyed because you weren't there for your parabatai when he needed you most." 

"If he needed me, he could fucking talk to me." 

"I'll talk to him," she said immediately, putting a hand on Alec's arm. "You'll see, before the next mission comes up, he'll tell you what you need to hear." She brushed past him to leave the room, probably to head straight to find Jace. 

"You didn't finish your report," he called after her. 

"I know!" 

* * *

By the Angel, Jace looked like a kicked puppy. He always looked that way after a fight with Alec when the anger wore off. 

"So," Izzy said, casually leaning against the doorway. 

He looked up at her, expression now scrubbed as clean as he could. "Did you need something or are you here to pick up passive beauty tips?" 

"You and Alec." 

"What about me and Alec?" 

"You need to talk to him about Clary." 

"He'll get over it and we'll be back to normal by tomorrow like we always are." 

"He's serious about letting you go on missions without him, Jace. He came to the lab to tell me; that's not bluffing. I don't like to get involved in your business-" Jace snorted and she stopped, smirking. "Well alright. Maybe I like to get involved in your business a little bit. But not when it comes to your bond. That's solely between the two of you and I respect that. 

"This isn't Alec being Alec. I care about Clary too, but you're taking it too far. She doesn't know anything about the dangers she's facing when she's making decisions. As her friends, it's up to us to inform her, temper her passion into wisdom. You haven't been doing that. I love you like a brother, Jace, but you haven't been tempering _anything_ , you've been adding fuel to it like it might not explode on us. Clary doesn't know better when she says we should raid a vampire's lair; you do." 

"You went with me." 

"Yes, because if I agreed with Alec, you and Clary would have gone in there alone. It's dangerous to make enemies of the New York Clan when we could have put pressure on them with the Accords and demanded that they return Simon to us." 

"And you think they would have listened to that?" 

"I think they have bigger things to worry about and wouldn't have wanted to complicate the situation for themselves. They would have turned Simon back over to us before we told the Clave, and none of them would have died." 

"Suddenly you're mourning the deaths of vampires?" 

She kept her gaze steady. "They are bad enemies to have. Talk to Alec. Tell him what he needs to hear, or instead of being angry at you, he's going to be mourning _us_." 

Jace sighed as she walked away, dropping his face into his hands. What a damn mess. And it was such a pain in the ass that she was right. The main problem with talking to Alec was that Jace didn't know _why_ he was doing this. Alec thought he was falling for her or something, but it wasn't that. There's something special about Clary, and he means that in as not interested of a way as he possibly can. She hadn't been trained as a Shadowhunter from birth like the rest of them, and while she could definitely use direction and greater control of her emotions, she was already proving a good fighter; that shouldn't be happening. She had a glow about her, and he knows that that sounds romantic, but it was true the same way Izzy had a glow when she was doing katas. When you got in the right mindset and everything fell into place, that's how it looked. For Clary, that didn't happen when fighting, but on the way to save someone. It was intriguing to him, and he'd thought that Alec would be equally curious to see why that was. 

The parabatai bond didn't used to work like a compass to your partner, but since they'd started sleeping together, it had... changed with them. Jace didn't always know where he was, but when he wanted to find him, all he had to do was let his mind relax and his feet would bring him right to Alec. 

Training room, pounding on a sandbag like it had done him wrong. 

Jace walked over and stabilized the top of it. 

"What?" Alec asked, wiping sweat from his forehead with the back of one hand. 

"Izzy talked to me." 

"She doesn't waste any time, does she. Let go." 

Jace dropped his hand from the bag and let Alec take a few more jabs. "She was right." 

"You say that like I know what she said." 

"I'm guessing it was similar to what she said to you." 

"That we need to suck it up because we're parabatai?" 

"Something like that." 

"Yeah, just one problem. I don't want to suck it up. I've been holding back because I want to be there for you, but-" Alec gestured helplessly. "Consider this my breaking point. I'd follow you to the ends of the earth, but I would need to know why." 

Jace took a deep breath, glancing around to see if anyone was close enough to hear; they weren't, but it was still too open. "Yeah. You're right." He tilted his head towards the living quarters. "C'mon, we can grab some food from the kitchen and talk." 

"You're giving?" Alec said, shocked. 

"No need to sound surprised, I do all sorts of things for you I wouldn't do for anyone else." 

"The past couple days..." 

"Have been stressful." Jace grabbed Alec's jacket and held it out to him. "I said I'd explain, and I will." 

* * *

"A glow," Alec repeated flatly, staring at him over his forkful of noodles. "You're not making me feel better about this." 

"I'm not being a fucking romantic, do you really not see it?" 

Alec shook his head. 

"What about when Izzy practices?" 

"What about it? I've seen her practice a hundred times." 

"And you've never seen her glow." 

Alec shook his head again. "Like the glow from her candles?" 

" _No_ , a glow actually emanating from her. You seriously don't know what I mean?" 

"I have no idea what you're talking about. People don't glow, no matter how in the zone they are." 

"You're serious. You've _never_ seen it." 

"I don't know what you're seeing, but I can tell you that nobody else can see it but you." 

That seemed unlikely, but Jace didn't pay attention to people other than Alec and Izzy most of the time. "Oh." At least it explained a few things, even if it made him feel a bit like a freak. "Well whatever, I thought you could see it too. I've only noticed in other Shadowhunters, but- y'know, like Izzy or Hodge, never someone untrained. I thought you'd want to know about it as much as I did." 

"It does sound interesting," Alec admitted grudgingly. 

"Look, I know you think I'm interested in dating her, but I'm really really not. Like, negative interested in doing that." 

"Mmhmm." 

"Alec, c'mon. You asked why I was doing all of this, and I told you." 

Alec sighed, dropping his fork on his plate with a clatter. "Yeah, I know." 

"Then what's wrong?' 

He squirmed a little, not enough that anyone other than Jace would have noticed. 

"If I talked to you, you have to talk to me too," Jace prodded. 

"I figured you changed your mind." 

"About what?" 

Alec squirmed some more, putting off answering by picking his fork back up and taking a bite. When he swallowed and Jace was still looking at him expectantly, he blew out a breath. "Us. I figured you'd want to call it off." 

"Never," Jace said immediately. 

"Yeah but that's the problem." 

"How the hell is that a problem?" 

"You're always telling me that you're never going to change your mind." 

"I'm still not seeing the problem." 

"If you changed your mind, would you _want_ to tell me? Or would you feel too guilty about promising the rest of your life that you bottle it up?" 

"First of all, bottling things up is your MO, not mine. Second of all, I only tell you that it's not going to change because I'm sure about it. Third of all, I'm way too selfish to suffer in silence." 

Alec snorted. 

"Fuck off, I'm plenty selfish." 

"Sure you are," Alec said, patting his knee condescendingly. 

Jace shoved his hand off with a scowl that they both knew was fake. "Am I forgiven?" 

"Guess that depends on if Clary keeps looking at you like you hung the fucking moon for her." 

"Why is my forgiveness dependent on how she acts? Shouldn't it just be about me?" 

"It will be when you finally turn down one of her insane ideas instead of doing it, no questions asked." 

"You drive a hard bargain, Lightwood. Start pending my forgiveness now, you will see the changes in my work performance in the following days." 

"To be processed in the next three to five mission cycles." 

"Guess that means I have to be on my best behavior." 

"It would be appreciated." 

Jace put a hand on Alec's knee, trying to give him a serious look-- he didn't know if it worked or if he just looked constipated. "Until I learn to use my brain again, you're getting final decisions in the field. My curiosity is overriding everything else, and we need to, y'know, not get murdered by the Clave when the dust settles." 

"Thank you. I'm glad you're thinking about the consequences." 

"Would you be more or less disappointed with me if I told you that mostly I'm thinking about the consequences of you being mad at me." 

"Jace-" 

"So that means more." Jace pat his knee then brought his hand back to his plate. 

"How have you made it this far without an ounce of self-preservation?" 

"I have you." 

Alec shook his head. "You're ridiculous," he muttered, but it was an end to the conversation, not a rebuttal. 

"Speaking of things we do together..." 

"No." 

"What, suddenly sex with me is a hardship?" 

"You know it's not," Alec said, rolling his eyes. "Clary has a tendency to barge in without knocking, and you know that she'll use an unlocking rune to get in if she thinks she needs to talk to you badly enough." 

There was a long moment, where Jace wanted to tell him that he was wrong and they could totally steal some time together like they normally did, but he knew that Alec was right. By the Angel, he hated this. Mostly what he hated was that Alec had been so right that now he could barely think of anything else, but still. These little details were going to kill him. "Yeah, I guess you're right." 

If they were still fighting, he knew that Alec would have said of course he was right, Jace should realize that by now. But they were back to getting along like they always did, so Alec nodded, and the rest of their meal was eaten in peace, exchanging opinions about how Max was doing at the Mumbai Institute and how Izzy actually felt about Clary's mundane friend. Max was probably causing trouble like his siblings had always done, and Izzy was (hopefully) just flirting to pass the time and keep him occupied with something other than getting them in trouble. 

They had long since finished their meals by the time Clary barged in. As Alec predicted, she tore right through their locking rune without a hint of remorse. Lucky for them, they were still sitting on the bed talking. "Simon's gone." 

"Do people raised in the mundane world know how to knock?" Alec asked, and she ignored him, looking at Jace. 

"He left, we need to go after him and bring him back!" 

"We can't go around kidnapping mundanes, Clary." 

"But he's in danger out there! He was already kidnapped by vampires, they're not going to-" 

"Actually," Alec cut in, "he's safer anywhere you're not." 

"What?" 

"He only got kidnapped because he was with you. Nobody's after him if he's by himself." 

Clary looked hurt and like she was on the verge of crying. In his defense, she _always_ looked like she was on the verge of crying. 

"Alec," Jace said in reprimand. Alec rolled his eyes. Jace turned back to Clary. "But he's right. Your friend's safer at his home than he is here. You've already learned how to use a seraph blade; he doesn't get that option. The vampires don't want him, they're not going to bother violating the Accords a second time over him, not when they lost so many people last time." 

Clary switched to glaring at him, her hands in fists at her side. "Simon's important to me, and he got hurt trying to help save my mother." 

"Congratulations," Alec said drily. "It's still safer for him to not be here." 

"You never wanted him here," she said accusingly. "You've been trying to kick him out since the second he got here!" 

"Yeah. Pity I can't get rid of you too." 

"Alec." 

Clary looked on the verge of tears again, but this time they were angry tears. "Simon's a good person and my _best friend_. Don't take it out on him just because you like being miserable!" she shouted, then turned on her heel and stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind her. 

"By the Angel, she's so annoying." 

"I thought we agreed that you didn't need to be jealous." 

"And I'm not, but she's still a pain in the ass. She thinks she knows everything even though she just got here." 

"I did the same thing when I moved, remember?" 

"Yeah but you actually knew shit. She doesn't know anything." 

"She knows her mother, her mother knows where the Cup is, and that's why we're keeping her around." 

"She's a pain in the ass." 

Jace chuckled. "No wonder she thinks you're miserable, you're so grumpy since she showed up. She might have a point, though." 

"Does she?" Alec said doubtfully. 

"I don't think she'll accept being without him just to keep him out of trouble." 

"Doesn't really seem like her MO, does it," Alec agreed. He sighed. "Are you going after her, then?" 

Jace shrugged. "Following your lead on this one, remember?" 

"Which is another way of saying you want me to tell you to go follow her and keep her out of trouble for her fucking mundane friend." 

"It's what I would do." 

"I hate you," Alec said tonelessly. "And I don't like her. Come on, we might as well go together." 


End file.
